SAME FACES NEW PLACES
-Corey Miller has been added to the S&E AA roster. I am a big fan of this move for them, it gives them another pitcher to go with David Bare so they can leave Locklear at 1B. Corey can also play some infield, and is close to a .700 career OBP. He should fit in well with the grit of that team.

-Josh Moore has gone from Competitive Edge AA to Bay Area AA. Not sure what happened here as Josh was a pretty big part of their season last year. Played all three middle infield positions I believe, and also a shade under .700 OBP on the year. Mark Patterson and company did make some big pick ups this year though, not always enough playing time to go around for everyone. Moore should be a solid pickup for the Bay Area squad and contribute on both sides of the ball

The conference opener brought about quite a bit of chatter on the boards this week. The first thing I would like to cover is the seemingly hot topic of Jose Flores, starting pitcher of the Proton AA team. Lots of guys were harping on him, and I think it is a little bit unjust. Jose battles hard, truly cares about winning, and guys love playing behind him. He throws a high percentage of no spins, does a good job of changing arcs. You can talk about his hitting all you want, but Mooch and others paved the way for pitchers not needing to have high OBPs. That is not what he is there for. Hopefully as the season goes on you guys can all watch some more, certainly a quality A/AA pitcher. My only knock on him would be that I know he doesn't like to ever come off the rubber, and in my personal opinion very few guys deserve that type of nod.

I also some some talk about the Competitive Edge pitching situation. Not much to say here other than Watson will be back at some point in the season, and Faron Miller was also added to the roster. So they should be a little more solid there as the season progresses and I expect they will be competing for a AA ring by seasons end.

We finally get to see the debut of the new Monsta/Albicocco/Racks/Nitro Circus Major team. Personally this seems like an exciting group, and we will see how they end up in the overall landscape. They have 16 guys currently listed on the roster with at least 5 guys playing their first year of Major in Austyn Dawe(SNI AA), Josh Fyffe(SNI AA), Kendall Welborn(S&E AA), Marc Wik(Classic Glass A), and Matt Brady(Baugh Ford A). I am not sure how many guys will be swinging the new Monsta USSSA, but I expect to see plenty of posts about it the following week. Truly wish these guys the best of luck though, and expect them to battle tough.

Those were just a few topics I felt were worth covering. Feel free to chime in with some other opinions. Everybody enjoy the long weekend of softball, and hopefully the parity from last year will carry over into this year.